304 
ieleh 13), Ce AN 1 ID) Jo IN 
MAGAZINE 
JUNE, 1916 
half feet and still going down in order to get 
under the fence into my neighbor’s yard. I 
may say here that, although warned he has 
taken no steps, and a host of golden Sunflowers 
are at present merrily headed toward his house. 
They do not seem to come back. 
In spite of all this, I believe that with proper 
precautions the Sunflower may be grown to 
advantage for it is really beautiful. A cement 
wall sunk to a depth of three feet and sur- 
rounding it would keep it in bounds, I think. 
One package of my seed was perennial and 
lacking the courage to plant any more I cannot 
decide whether it was only these that spread, 
which seems hardly possible, or whether the so- 
called annual varieties develop these roots also. 
I should like to hear from others on this sub- 
ject. So, while I admire the new red Heli- 
anthus very much indeed, when I come to its 
icture in the current catalogue I look at it 
ongingly, but I pass it by. 
Chilliwack, B. C. ELoIse W. STREET. 
[The difference between annual and perennial 
species is very clear. No “annual” lives over 
the winter. The Red Sunflower is an annual. 
—KHp.] 
Our Garden in the Making 
HIS is just the beginning of what in time 
is going to be our “informal formal gar- 
den.” We did every bit of the actual work on 
it ourselves except running the water into the 
fountain. My husband built the fountain, the 
two seats and the sundial in the cellar during 
the winter. The forms were made of boards, 
then conerete poured in, and when it was hard- 
ened, the forms were taken off. He put up the 
rustic fence, and I planted a Crimson Rambler 
at each post and the hardy border in front. It 
will take it a year or two to get started, but 
when the Iris, Larkspur, Foxgloves, Oriental 
Poppies, and all the rest begin blooming, think 
how lovely it will be! The border will be in 
flower from the time the first Jonquil appears 
until the frost takes the last Marigold. We are 
goine to cover the sundial with Ivy and plant 
a clump of Hollyhocks near it to give a bit of 
color there. 
We feel that we are going to get a great deal 
more pleasure out of our garden than if we had 
cut our strip of ground up into the conven- 
tional beds. It, of course, looks rather bare 
yet, but in a few years it is going to be a very 
beautiful spot if our plans only work out as 
well in the future as they have thus far. 
Pennsylvania. JANE GATES. 
Black Beetles on Asters 
N PAGE 72 of the March GARDEN MaGa- 
ZINE, in an article entitled “The Science 
of Growing Asters,” I note with surprise the 
following paragraph, and cannot understand 
how it came to “pass the censor.” After telling 
how she plants her Aster seeds and successfully 
cares for the seedlings, the author states as 
follows: 
“This extra fussing pays in sturdier plants 
. and renders the plants practically im- 
mune from the black beetle. In the years that 
I have grown Asters (only three) they have 
never been afflicted with this pest, and I under- 
stand the method of pot grown plants is largely 
the reason.” 
Pray how could any amount of “fussing” 
in planting keep away the black beetle from 
their feast of Aster flowers? The author 
might as well state that proper planting would 
keep away the nasty rose chafer from the 
Roses, or proper feeding keep the mosquitoes 
from our babies! 
It is possible that there may have been no 
black beetles in the author’s garden, or they 
may have preferred some other blooms to rav- 
age, as they often do in my own garden, spoil- 
ing the Calendulas or hardy Asters or Dian- 
thus, and letting the China Asters strictly 
alone. 
I do not decry the “fussing’—far from it! 
I am well aware that Asters need extra care, 
particularly when transplanting, and often ap- 
plications of various kinds about the roots, as 
their worst enemies lie underground. I have 
used with great success a lime and tobacco 
water mixture which was recommended last 
spring in THE GARDEN MAGAZINE. 
New York City. Mrs. L. G. REED. 
Classifying the Dahlia 
Seca botanists now prefer another 
scientific name for the flower, but it pre- 
eminently deserves the one socommonly given in 
floricultural literature, Dahlia variabilis, the 
“changeable Dahlia.” Probably no other genus of 
plants has developed in so short a time so many 
diverse types as mark the present day range of 
this beautiful fall flower. In the genus we have 
lants dwarf and plants giant, plants light yel- 
owish green and plants deep metallic bronze, 
stems stocky and stems slender and leaves 
coarse as those of cabbage and fine as those of 
ferns. The widest range, though, is shown in 
the flowers; for here, starting with the “single” 
with eight small “petals” or floral rays, we 
have every gradation in size from the tiny 
Pompon to the gigantic decorative, and every 
development in form, extending, on one hand, 
through the broad-petaled, flat Decorative to 
the perfect ball of tightly-quilted rays that 
mark the old “Show” type, and, on the other 
hand, through the long, gracefully twisted rib- 
bons of the Peony-flowered Dahlia, to the deli- 
cacy of the needle-like, interlacing, reversely 
rolled rays of the most advanced Cactus Dahlia. 
Developing in different countries along some- 
what unlike lines, the classification of these 
types of Dahlia has become very irregular, so 
that except in Hngland, where a National 
Dahlia Society and the Royal Horticultural 
Society have done much to secure uniformity, 
every grower has had a classification scheme of 
his own, differing slightly or materially from 
that of his neighbor. 
This unfortunate confusion the Azaerican 
Dahlia Society is attempting to correct, for 
this side of the water, at least; and has pre- 
sented a tentative classification scheme, which, 
in its final form, it is hoped Dahlia cataloguers 
generally will adopt and use, so that we may 
have a definite idea in mind when we speak of 
a particular type of Dahlia. 
This classification groups Dahlias in nine 
sections, largely by type of blossom, as follows: 
(1) Cactus Dahlias, with subsections for the 
true, fluted type and the Hybrid-cactus or Semi- 
cactus type; (2) Decorative Dahlias; (3) Ball- 
shaped, Double Dahlias, with subsections for 
Show type, Hybrid Show, Giant Show or Colos- 
sal type,and Pompon type; (4) Peony-flowered, 
or “Art” Dahlias; (5) Duplex Dahlias; (6) 
Single Dahlias, both large and small; (7) Col- 
larette Dahlias; (8) Anemone-flowered Dah- 
lias; and (9) Other sections, defining Minia- 
ture or Pompon Cactus, Mignon or Tom Thumb 
type, Bedding Dahlias, and Cockade, or Zonal, 
Dahlias. 
If classification has been confused, the no- 
menclature of its varieties is “confusion worse 
confounded.” Names are now not only dupli- 
cated, but double duplicated and even worse, 
frequently for varieties of same type. The 
same variety may travel under one or more 
aliases; names are so misspelled as hardly to 
be recognizable; foreign names are imported 
bodily with the varieties, or are translated or 
mistranslated; old varieties are renamed, etc., 
ete., while accurate descriptions of varieties, 
based on any known color standard, free from 
unduly laudatory adjectives and giving a clear 
picture of the flower, are altogether too rare. 
The correction of the errors in names and the 
writing of exact, non-technical but clear and 
concise descriptions of the limited number of 
varieties that are carefully selected as really 
worthy of continuation, are tasks that can only 
be accomplished, if at all, by years of careful 
work. 
All varieties thought by any grower to be 
really worthy of attention should be collected 
at some central place or places, where they can 
be carefully studed and compared by a small 
group of Dahlia lovers, or by scientific students 
of floriculture, who are interested in the flower 
as such, not concerned with its dissemination 
or sale but thoroughly cognizant of all points 
which make Dahlias worthy of growing or sell- 
ing, either for decorative beauty or commercial 
adaptability. Such work the American Dahlia 
Society, through its Nomenclature Committee, 
hopes sometime to be able to do; but it can be- 
come a possibility only by the hearty codpera- 
tion of all Dahlia growers and Dahlia lovers. 
Geneva, N. Y. F. H. Hatt. 
Protection from Sun or Frost 
CONVENIENT and effective device for 
[\. protecting plant from either sun or frost 
is made of muslin—or cheesecloth, if preferred 
—and galvanized wire such as is used for tele- 
graph lines. Not only is it convenient and ef- 
fective, but it can be made by any gardener, and 
there is no expense except for the material, 
which is cheap. Yard-wide muslin is probably 
the best to use for all purposes. The wires 
should be cut in 54-inch lengths, and bent into 
the form of a round-topped croquet wicket. 
Sew a hem an inch wide across the end of the 
muslin. Then fold the strip back on itself 
three feet, and run a line of stitching across it 
an inch from the folded end. Repeat this every 
three feet until you have made sie protector as 
long as you want it—preferably in such sizes 
that one or more of them will just cover your 
rows. Into each of these hems slip one of the 
bent wires. 
As the muslin is thirty-six inches wide and 
the wires are fifty-four inches long, nine inches 
of wire are thus left for sticking into the 
ground, on each side of the plant row, to hold 
the protector in place. When protecting from 
frost, or even cold, it is well to push the wires 
down so that the muslin touches the ground 
on each side, as this will shut out the wind and 
keep tle plants very snug; but for protection 
from the sun it is better to plunge the wires 
only sufficiently deep to hold the protector in 
place, and leave as much space as possible be- 
tween the protector and the ground for venti- 
lation; or the muslin may be slipped down on 
the wire until it touches the ground on the 
sunny side of the row and a wide space left 
open on the shady side. This latter plan has 
been found especially effective in protecting 
transplanted late celery from the fierce rays of _ 
the midsummer sun. 
Other advantages of this device as its light 
weight and the small space it occupies when not 
in use, as, of course, it collapses like the bel- 
lows of a camera, and enough of it to cover a 
hundred feet of row can be carried over the 
arm. When more than one section is used they 
should be slightly lapped at the junctions. 
Indiana. W. L. WILSon. 
A cheesecloth protection for plants, showing the 
wicket-like supports at three-foot intervals 
ee ee 
